Canon has introduced full HD video and a 16-million-pixel sensor to its news and sports EOS 1D series cameras with the launch of the Canon EOS 1D MKIV. The new professional body, which is due to arrive in the UK in December 2009 priced u00a34499 (u20ac5499) body only, also has an expanded top ISO setting of ISO 102,400, a new 45 point AF system as well as a u2018reflection-freeu2019 high resolution LCD panel.

Introduction

With the launch of the Canon EOS Mark IV, Canon has introduced full HD video and a 16-million-pixel sensor to its news and sports EOS 1D series cameras. The new professional body of the Canon EOS mark iv, which is due to arrive in the UK in December 2009 priced £4,499 (?5499) body only, also has an expanded top ISO setting of ISO 102,400, a new 45-point AF system as well as a ?reflection-free? high resolution LCD panel.

Product managers Mike Owen and David Parry of Canon Europe and UK

Speaking in an interview with AP, Mike Owen, DSLR product manager for Canon Europe, said that the Canon EOS 1D IV was the result of extensive research and feed-back from professional photographers. ?We?ve been listening to what professional news and sports photographers want, and this is our response. The priorities for this camera have been speed, performance and reliability, coupled with our aim of achieving the highest image quality possible. We?ve made some great progress with noise avoidance and noise reduction, which has allowed us to raise the maximum standard sensitivity from ISO 3200 to 12,800, and the expanded settings from ISO 6400 to 102,400.?

The Canon EOS mkiv sensor

The new 16 million pixel Canon-built CMOS sensor

Maintaining the same 10 frames per second shooting rate as the 2007 Canon EOS 1D III and the same 28.1×18.7mm APS-H sensor size the Canon EOS 1D IV uses a new 16.1 million-pixel CMOS sensor that has been redesigned to collect more light per pixel. The micro-lens arrangement above the pixels is gapless and the colour filters have been altered to allow ?significantly? more light to pass through. Circuitry on the sensor has been rearranged to reduce the space between pixels and the actual photodiodes have been enlarged to collect more light. ?Noise is being tackled on the sensor as well as through image processing.? says Mike Owen, ?The new DIGIC 4 processors are 30% more powerful than those used in the Canon EOS 1D III and so can handle far more data in the same time.? The camera?s buffer has been expanded so that up to 121 full-resolution jpeg images or 28 raw files can be captured in a single 10fps burst ? an improvement of 11 jpegs and 3 raw files over the previous model.

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New AF system

The body form of the EOS 1D IV is almost exactly the same as that of the previous model

Canon has introduced a 45-point autofocusing system that allows the user to select any of the 45 to use for spot focusing. Of the 45 points 39 are cross type with sensitivity of up to f/2.8. A new link-up with the camera?s orientation detection system allows users to select alternative AF points for landscape and portrait orientations, so the camera can switch automatically between them as the camera is rotated. Owen says a more powerful dedicated AF micro-processor will improve over all AF performance.

Full HD video system

The video screen of the new EOS 1D IV. The camera here is not fitted with the final version of the Clear View II LCD screen the production model will have

In line with current trends the Canon EOS 1D IV will feature a video mode that will be capable of full 1920×1080 HD capture at frame rates between 24-30fps, while a 720p mode allows rates as high as 60fps. There is no frame-grabbing option in-camera but Owen says that Canon?s Zoom Browser software can lift individual frames from movies via a computer. The camera will be equipped with a stereo mic socket to supplement the built-in mono mic.

The communication ports of the EOS 1D IV, showing the new stereo microphone socket

Improving further on the screen introduced for the EOS 7D the Clear View II LCD on the EOS 1D IV has eliminated air spaces within the layer sandwich to reduce internal reflections and glare. An additional coating on the screen?s surface is said to cut out reflections entirely. The 3in LCD will feature a resolution of 920,000 pixels.

To accompany the new body Canon is also launching a new Wi-Fi transmitter.

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